Zalman FS-C77 Fatal1ty review

Can this heatsink impress game enthusiasts?

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Our Verdict

There is nothing special in terms of cooling to be found here

For

Reasonably priced

Against

May be tricky to install

Zalman uses a pro-gamer to brand this heatsink at the enthusiast looking for better gaming performance. However, 3D rendering is more GPU bound than affected by the CPU, so the association is not an obvious one.

Flower-shaped heatsinks such as this can be tricky to install, as no component over 39mm in height should be within 68mm of the CPU, so some older motherboards may not support the Fatal1ty. Weighing in at almost a kilogram, the impression is that it will dramatically reduce your processor's temperature.

However, we were disappointed by the test results. Our 3.6GHz Pentium D's temperature dropped by a mere 3ºC, albeit with a bigger drop in case temperature and lower noise output readings. The product is useful for a quieter computing experience that won't break the bank, but there are better options for overclocking. Orestis Bastounis